Somewhat lost and overlooked amid Baker Mayfield's public

Somewhat lost and overlooked amid Baker Mayfield's public

BEREA Chris Hubbard Color Rush Jersey , Ohio (AP) — spat with former Browns coach Hue Jackson is that the rookie's playing at an elite level.This quarterback isn't all talk.Mayfield had a November to remember, completing 74 percent of his passes (65 of 88) while leading the Browns (4-6-1) to two wins and the edge of serious playoff possibilities. The No. 1 overall pick has thrown nine touchdown passes and just one interception in his past three games while earning a 129.5 rating — second only to New Orleans star Drew Brees.Nothing fake about those numbers.Mayfield, who threw a season-high four TD passes last week — is the first rookie in NFL history to record ratings of 140-plus in consecutive games, and his efforts earned him rookie of the month honors.Rookie of the year may be next.It's not a coincidence that Mayfield's recent rise came after Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley were fired. With running backs coach Freddie Kitchens taking over for Haley and calling plays, Cleveland's offense has played with a faster tempo, has been more versatile and efficient.Mayfield is getting rid of the ball much quicker, spreading it around to his playmakers and making better decisions.It would be easy to surmise Jackson was holding him back, but Mayfield doesn't think that's the case."No," Mayfield said. "I mean, obviously the easiest answer would be to look on that and say, ‘Yeah, I've played a lot better since then.' But that's not it. It's just been about me doing my job and doing it at a high level. So it's not about that. I wouldn't blame that at all."Still, it's worth considering where the Browns would be if Mayfield had begun the season as the starter and not Tyrod Taylor's backup.But that's irrelevant now as Mayfield has the Browns winning — they snapped a 25-game road losing streak last week at Cincinnati — and playing in meaningful December games, starting with Sunday's matchup in Houston against the Texans https://www.brownsfanshop.com/Seth-Devalve-Jersey , who have won eight in a row.With his impressive career start, Mayfield has converted numerous doubters who thought he was either too small or too smug to succeed.Texans star Deshaun Watson isn't surprised by anything Mayfield has done. Watson and Mayfield are friends, their bond beginning as college rivals and strengthened as offseason workout partners.Watson has been around Mayfield long enough to see how players, teams and cities gravitate toward the No. 1 overall draft pick."I saw that when he was playing at Texas Tech and saw it at Oklahoma," Watson said. "That is what drew me closer to him, want to be around him and get to know him a little better because I can feed off of that energy that he gives off. Everyone wants to play with him. The guy is a playmaker."He is playing very well. That is the reason why they are having a lot of success because he is leading that team, he is leading that organization and he is going to have a bright future, a bright career, win a lot of games, win championships and do a lot of things for himself and that organization."Mayfield might be in his first season, but Kitchens said Cleveland's staff isn't modifying any aspect of the game plan because of his inexperience.No time for that."There is not babying him into anything," Kitchens said. "He is doing a good job. He works hard during the course of the week. He puts time in after hours and before hours. He is doing a good job of staying focused on the task at hand inside of one play, inside of one read, inside of one practice and one game. That is how you continue to progress. It is not overwhelming him or anything like that. It is just continuing his progress on a play-by-play basis."NOTES: Kitchens joined the chorus of Mayfield supporters who had no problem with the QB objecting to Jackson taking a job with Cincinnati or calling his former coach "fake." day. Haley said Mayfield had every right to speak his mind. "If he said it Kevin Zeitler Jersey , that's what he feels," Kitchens said. "And I'm standing behind Baker Mayfield. … Suddenly it's big news if we don't want to turn it into a Kumbaya after the game and turn it into fist bumps and hugs. I don't think Baker disrespected anybody in what he said. He spoke what he felt." Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on offense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 17 game against the Baltimore Ravens.QuarterbackPosPlayerPlays%StatsPosPlayerPlays%StatsIn Baker Mayfield’s final game of the season, he was able to reach 27 touchdown passes on the season, breaking the record set by Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson for the most thrown by a rookie. Mayfield did it without starting every game, no less.In terms of performance, Mayfield was not as sharp as he has been this season when blitzed by the Ravens. Per PFF, Mayfield was “9-of-23 with one touchdown, three interceptions, and a 31.3 rating when blitzed” against Baltimore. At the end of the game, none of his four pass attempts could hit receivers for completions to get into field goal range. Still, it was a heck of a performance overall by Mayfield, who shows no hesitation about responding quickly to a score by the opposition.Running BackPosPlayerPlays%StatsPosPlayerPlays%StatsNick Chubb’s final carry of the season came with 6:42 left in the fourth quarter, when he was hit for a loss of 5 yards Joel Bitonio Color Rush Jersey , taking him back under the 1,000-yard rushing mark to finish the season with 996 yards. It was Chubb’s lowest output since becoming a starter. I wouldn’t say he did anything wrong; sometimes the flow of the game just doesn’t end up dictating the ground game like one would hope. Cleveland had a different vision entering the game: Chubb got the first two carries of the game, and they went for 6 and 13 yards, respectively.With the team being behind, Duke Johnson out-snapped Chubb for the first time since the Carlos Hyde trade, if I’m not mistaken. Despite that, Johnson only had 1 catch for 3 yards. In two games against the Ravens this year, Johnson had 2 catches for 10 yards.Wide ReceiverPosPlayerPlays%StatsPosPlayerPlays%StatsJarvis Landry had an unfortunate play in which he missed out on a 93-yard touchdown pass, thanks to the ball bouncing off his helmet before it could drop into his arms. Also, on the final drive, Baker Mayfield threw a pass while under pressure to the outside. I could see what Landry was trying to do — he wanted to one hand touch the ball, and then use the plowing defender’s momentum to corral the ball in, just as he’s done a couple other times this season. It just didn’t work out.Antonio Callaway has become quite the red zone threat, eh? He finished the season with a team-high five touchdown receptions. I do think that he didn’t come back to the ball well enough on Mayfield’s first interception https://www.brownsfanshop.com/Terrance-Mitchell-Jersey , but Callaway responded after that with some nice catches. Callaway was the second-highest graded offensive player by PFF with a grade of 79.5.Rashard Higgins and Breshad Perriman also did great work. When you look at the performance of the Browns’ top four receivers, you almost think to yourself, “isn’t this group good enough for 2019?” Perriman was the highest-graded offensive player (80.1) by PFF and made several more impressive catches, this time against his former team.Tight EndPosPlayerPlays%StatsPosPlayerPlays%StatsIt may have taken longer than I expected, but it was nice to see more athletic catches by David Njoku as the season went along. It helps that Baker Mayfield would put it up in the right spot for him. I still feel Njoku needs work on plays with tighter man coverage, such as a quick slant — a play he wasn’t able to win on at the end of the game. PFF graded Njoku as the team’s third-highest offensive player on Sunday (75.3).Offensive LinePosPlayerPlays%StatsPosPlayerPlays%StatsDespite all of the Ravens’ blitzes, the Browns allowed no sacks and just two quarterback hits all game. Mayfield was sacked 22 times in his first 7 games. In his final 7 games, he was sacked a total of 3 times.Per PFF, “Guards Kevin Zeitler and Joel Bitonio allowed one combined pressure against the Ravens, finishing the year with PFF’s best and second-best pass-blocking grades among qualifying guards (91.7 and 88.1).”